1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling the speed of moving between menu list items and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for controlling the speed of moving between menu list items by setting a candidate range, to which a target item desired by a user belongs, when navigating or searching the menu list items by tilting a handheld device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, hand-held devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and MP3 players have come into wide use, and key buttons have been used as major input units for these handheld devices. However, a user has to repeatedly press key buttons to input signals when navigating or searching a lot of menu list items to select a desired function. To reduce such inconvenience, research is being conducted on an interface having a tilting function which enables a user to perform an operation by shaking or tilting a handheld device such as a mobile phone, a PDA or a MP3 player.
FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining menu navigation using a conventional tilting interface.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, three axes including one overlapping axis are required to measure frontal and lateral tilts of a handheld device. A user can move between different menu items, each in the form of 3×3 blocks, by tilting the handheld device upward/downward or to the left/right. Examples of this tilting interface function can be easily found in games or menu navigation using a tilt of a user's wrist sensed by a tilt sensor.
When tilting is implemented in an interface, the speed of moving between menus when a handheld device is tilted must be high in order to increase the convenience of the interface. However, when the speed of moving between menus is high, there may be some errors caused by a user tilting the handheld device. For example, while moving between menu items by tilting a handheld device, when a user reaches a desired menu item, the user has to return the handheld device to its original horizontal state (or a predetermined angle of tilt). However, when the tilting sensitivity of the handheld device or the speed of moving between menu items is high, the user may move to an undesired menu item in the process of returning the handheld device to its original horizontal state. Therefore, the user fails to stop precisely at the position of the desired menu item due to a time difference between visually perceiving a movement between the menu items and manipulating the handheld device by hand to stop the movement and errors made by the user while manipulating the handheld device by hand. For these reasons, the user cannot make inputs as intended.
In this regard, a technology for controlling the speed of moving between different menu list items is required.